


The Mind Is for Seeing, the Heart Is for Hearing

by J_senpai



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Blindness, Eventual Smut, Kidnapping, M/M, Smut, So many tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-01-04 16:53:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1083397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_senpai/pseuds/J_senpai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Historical AU. Aspiring heir to the throne, prince Armin, is swiped along with the power struggles of the nobility. It is up to his chamber servant Eren and the skilled swordswoman Mikasa to try and retrieve him in one piece. (Eremin, side Jearmin)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Calling the devil is not the same as seeing him come

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: There will be smut in the future chapters, otherwise there’s nothing really noteworthy, except for our shitty sense of humour. Proceed with caution.  
> Disclaimer: We don’t own any of these characters and no one pays us for writing shitty fanfics. Yet. We hope that time will come soon. Feel free to send us money.  
> AN: So we decided to try and pull together another multi-chapter story. Hopefully it’ll turn out alright. The smut won't play as big a part in this one as in our other stories (awkward laughter), but hopefully reading about a damsel called Armin in distress will be somewhat satisfying.

His days often started with the sounds of the curtains being opened. He would mostly ignore it and put the blanket over his ears, blocking away any sounds the servants caused. One of the advantages of being a prince was that they usually let him. Or at least that’s what Armin liked to think. Pity was the last thing he needed. Even after sixteen years some people looked down on him, which really didn’t bother him, but it still hurt to think that some people didn’t think that he could survive on his own.

Stretching under the warm blanket, Armin slowly started to wake up. He would still refuse to move until Eren came to dress him,but their morning routine had been going on for so long Armin automatically woke up before the servant’s arrival.

And, soon enough, Eren’s footsteps (they were the most determinant footsteps Armin knew) entered the room.

“Get your ass up, Armin.”

Armin groaned, but hid his smile into the pillows. That was one of the things he appreciated about Eren: he treated Armin neither as novelty nor as some fragile thing.

“Yes, yes, I’m getting up already. See?”

“...You’re not moving.”

“I’m moving mentally.”

The blanket was yanked away from him, and the cold air hit Armin’s bare feet. He tried to catch the hem and failed, getting a laugh out of Eren.

“If you want it back you better get up and work for it,” Eren said. Armin could hear him moving away from him.

“Okay, I’m awake,” Armin complained and stood up, “Is there anything special going on today?”

“Not really, but there’s going to be a small festival in the village. Care to sneak out like we used to?”

When they were small Armin’s adoptive father used to catch them sneaking around the castle, trying to get out without anyone noticing. Most of the times they didn’t get past the castle’s gates, but every now and again they managed to get out and into the village (well, Mikasa had found out about them, but because she was Armin’s childhood friend and like a sister to eren she allowed them to continue under the condition that she’d join them).

“Sure, but I need to go talk to the King this midday,” Armin answered while Eren helped his shirt on. King Erwin, Armin’s uncle, had made his nephew heir to the throne several years ago as a result of a series of unfortunate affairs. First Erwin’s wife, the Queen, had died in childbirth (the baby hadn’t survived either) and thenhis brother had lost his life in battlefield. Motherless Armin had been orphaned and so he had been taken into the castle and made next in the line of inheritage.

Some people had been pessimistic (to put it nicely) about the King’s decision, but Erwin had always treated Armin with respect. And the Prince was determinant to meet his expectations. Even after Armin had astonished people with his intellectual abilities and strategic skills, some still thought that he wouldn’t be the right person to gain the King’s title. He wasn’t the most muscular soldier - hell, he would leave the sword wielding to Mikasa - and he was still waiting to grow at least couple of inches, but the saying a pen is mightier than a sword really spoke to him. When it came down to ruling a country, waving a sword wasn’t important. Armin was glad his uncle shared his thoughts on this.

“Can you get to the kitchen by yourself?” Eren asked, waking Armin from his thoughts.

“Yes, I think so,” Armin answered as Eren tied Armin’s puff tie, buttoned up his vest and put his shoes on. In Armin’s opinion not being able to dress himself was frustrating at most, but spending time alone with Eren made it worth it.

“But why aren’t you coming to eat with me? Who’s going to eat all my leftovers now?” the Prince jokingly complained, putting on the most adorable expression he could muster.

Eren’s hand touched his shoulder and lingered there a couple of seconds longer than necessary, “Sorry, but Rivaille told me to mop the grand halland I really can’t refuse. Remember the time when I forgot to take my muddy shoes off before entering the kitchen?” Armin nodded. He had heard Rivaille’s yelling to the other side of the castle.

“Well, I think this is the only way to gain his forgiveness.”

“That’s probably the wisest thing to do,” Armin laughed, “This must be a lucky day for the dogs, since they get the leftovers.”

* * *

Knowing every part of the castle as well as his own pockets, Armin was in the dining hall in a blink of an eye. He didn’t have to eat alone, as the King arrived for breakfast too. Armin lived in this small (by comparison) castle in the countryside, aside from the rest of the Royal family and other noble families. Armin expected to be invited into the main castle sooner or later, but for now he had Eren, a handful of other servants, a unit of soldiers and a private tutor to keep him company. Still it was nice when Erwin visited him from the capital and Armin got to talk to his uncle.

“I managed to get you new books,” Erwin said, and Armin’s face lit up.

“Really? About the ocean?” Armin was ready to run to the library, but Erwin cleared his throat loudly, which got the Prince to halt.

“I was about to save them to your birthday, but I think you deserve them now. Your latest plan of strategy for the army was brilliant.”

“Thank you!” Armin all but yelled, trying to get to his books. He had waited for months for them.

“Patience is an important feature a future King needs,” Erwin stated. Armin let out a loud whine. Come to us! The books yelled in the distance, pleading to be read.

“You may know this already, but there’s a festival in the village tonight. I trust you not to go there.”

“Of course,” Armin lied, thinking about the plan he had came up with during the trip from his chambers to the kitchen.

“Don’t play any games with me. I made the first move already, but you don’t need to do the second one.”

In other words he made sure there’s guards everywhere.

“Why would I do that?” the Prince smiled innocently. The King wouldn’t buy it and they both knew it.

“I think your books are waiting,” Erwin mentioned as a servant poured hot water into his cup.

* * *

Armin made a new record of running to the library, and by the time he got there he was out of breath and got a couple of sore spots from falling over, but it didn’t matter: the smell of books filled his nose and he headed straight to the desk that was located in the middle of the room. His new books were on top of the table, waiting for him to run his fingers along the leather covers. He couldn’t decide what to read first, so he grabbed all the books - there were four of them, and they weighed a lot - and made his way to a faraway corner by heart. The library had stayed the same since he had been able to walk freely in the castle. Erwin had kept everything where it had been since then, and Armin was grateful for it.

As the Prince was about to sit down on a couchhe heard footsteps approaching.

“Mikasa?” he asked even though he already knew it was her.

“Do you need any help with those?” she asked, referring to the books Armin had put next to him.

“Not really, these are the new ones that I have been talking about for months. They’re in Braille.”

Mikasa huffed pleasantly.

“That’s nice.”

Mikasa didn’t share Armin’s intense thirst for knowledge - all she really needed for being content was the safety of her loved ones - but she was clearly happy for Armin. Just like Eren, Mikasa had been in the castle as long as Armin could recall. Just a few years ago she had amazed everyone with her exceptional fighting skills and quickly gained a high rank among the soldiers. Still Armin did his best to keep her in the castle as his bodyguard, and out of the battlefield. It was selfish, he knew that, but even the higher commanders agreed that she was too valuable for them to lose.

Armin felt a hand pat him on the head. It was Mikasa’s way of saying goodbye.

“Eren is cleaning the grand hall,” Armin told her, already knowing she’d ask it sooner or later. She thanked quietly and left, the sound of her footsteps getting further away.

Now alone in the library, Armin took the heaviest book and opened it. He slid his finger over the text and got absorbed in the book’s world about deep, dangerous oceans and strange creatures living in it. Since he couldn’t really tell how much time had passed while he was reading, learning about things called sea cucumbers, he didn’t know how long he had been in the library until his stomach let out a loud growl. When Eren was in the library he always made sure they left before Armin got hungry, but now that he wasn’t here time had flew by without Armin noticing.

I wonder if he has managed to mob the hall by now, Armin thought. His mind wandered to the morning, thinking about Eren’s hand on his shoulder and how it had lingered there a little too long.

For a few years now Eren and Armin had been playing this game, even though neither of them had really mentioned it out loud. When they had been kids Eren’s way of touching Armin had always been purposeful and effortless. His hand had been warm and confident while guiding Armin outside the castle walls.

Lately it had been a little different, though. Eren’s hands tended to linger on Armin’s wrist, neck and hair whenever the other was dressing or undressing him. Armin wasn’t entirely certain about why Eren had started to do this, but it felt pleasant so he allowed it and paid back the favor by gropingly putting his hand on Eren’s shoulder or his chest. It was like they were testing how much they could share touches without being too obvious about it.

Shaking his head, Armin tore his mind off the manservant and made his way to the kitchens.

Now that he wasn’t in a hurry he walked calmly, only fastening his steps when his stomach growled loudly.When he got to the kitchen the first thing Armin did was to walk straight towards the table and then feel if the servants had left any cups or plates full of food on the table. As he thought there wasn’t any: he must have read well past dinner.The Prince sighed and made his way to the kitchen cabinet.

As Armin recalled, the cups were at the top shelf, he barely reached them on his tiptoes. The tea leaves could be easily smelled (they only got chamomile this time of the year and Armin wanted to enjoy it as long as it lasted), as someone had left the jar onto the table. The Prince scooped a fair amount of dried leafs. One of the kitchen maids entered the room when Armin carefully grabbed the hot kettle.

“Your Highness, let me..!”

Armin ignored the girl’s hasty voice and proceeded to pour the water. He didn’t even spill.

“I have been blind for all my life, it would be pretty sad if I were incapable of pouring my own tea,” Armin said, trying to keep his voice calm and gentle.

“O-oh,” the maid muttered and shifted awkwardly.

“Please, Your Highness, sit down and I’ll prepare something for you!”

Armin nodded and searched for a chair. Soon enough there was an unusually big portion of freshly baked bread, cheese, sausages and even tiny slices of apple in front of him.

“It must be tough to live like that. I admire Your Highness greatly,” the maid said as she set the plateful down.

Armin didn’t respond. Suddenly the whole plateful of food just reeked of pity. Because that was exactly what her so called “admiration” was. Armin didn’t care for pity, even when it was disguised as respect.

At first Armin hadn’t considered himself lacking. He could move, breathe and laugh normally, and he had friends and people he considered family even though they didn’t necessarily share the same blood. He could navigate in all familiar surroundings and he recognized the people he knew. It had taken a few years for Armin to realize that there even was a crucial difference between him and everyone else. It had been a weird concept to understand that he lacked something that was obvious to everyone else, because he couldn’t detect soundless objects coming his way, or instantly know the layout of a room he had never been to.

A boy working in the stables had once asked Armin what it was like to “always live in the dark”. Armin hadn’t understood the question at all, and before he could ask him to elaborate the boy had been given a cuff on the ear for asking such an offensive question.

“You can take the food away,” Armin said grimly, pushing the plated away from himself, “I remembered that I have something to take care of and have no time to eat.” He knew that it was an obvious excuse, but he didn’t care. The tea was hot and it burned his tongue as he gulped it down, but he wanted to leave the place as soon as possible. Armin knew he shouldn’t get emotional over something like this, but it always hurt even though he wouldn’t admit it. He wasn’t weak, but only a sentence had made him feel miserable about his life.

“But Your Highness, you didn’t touch anything! You must still be hungry,” the servant insisted, and it could be heard from her voice that he doubted the Prince’s hasty exit.

“I’ll take my leave now” was all the Prince said before dashing out. He wouldn’t cry, he was stronger than that. He would just go up the stairs, slide his hand along the wall of the hallway till the third window, turn right and then open the first door there to go back to the library, where he could forget that this talk with the servant ever happened.

Somehow Armin found himself from his room, however. He plopped onto the bed and pulled the cushions over his head.

“God I’m so tired,” the boy muttered. So tired of people looking down on me.

He didn’t get to lay on the bed for long, though, because only minutes later Eren entered the room. Making silence entries hadn’t ever been Eren’s forte, and this time wasn’t an exception.

“Armin! It’s already evening, do you have a plan?” the boy yelled. Being quiet also wasn’t something Eren was good at.

“Yeah, it includes yelling so loud that everyone in the castle knows what we’re up to, I’m glad you’ve got that part covered!”

“Heh, sorry.”

Eren’s footsteps approached the bed and stopped next to him.

“You know I hauled you out of there once today already, do I seriously need to do it again?”

Armin shrugged. The mattress sank a little from Eren’s weight. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Armin’s hair was fiddled with. He decided against ranting at Eren over something so trivial.

“Nothing really. Have you informed Mikasa?”

“Yeah. She says Erwil will have our balls when he finds out.”

“So she’ll cover for us?”

“Yeah.”

Armin willed himself to get up. “Okay, here’s the plan.”

But what Armin didn’t know was that there were an extra pair of ears listening to his plan.

* * *

As planned, Mikasa had cleared their route and was waiting for them near a big tree located right next to the castle’s wall. They had tried to escape through the castle’s main gate enough times to accept that it didn’t work. Couple of years ago Mikasa had been doing guard duty and had noticed the tree, and since then it had been their way to get to the city without anyone noticing. The only problem was to get the Prince into the tree, over the wall and safely to the other side and later back to the castle.

“What did you say to Erwin this time to get him leave you alone?” Eren asked as he watched Mikasa, who was just jumping from the tree on top of the wall. “Did you use the books as decoy?”

“Yes. Even if someone looks in I put pillows under my blanket to make it look like I was just sleeping in my room.”

“Simple, but clever as always. Can Armin come there now?” Mikasa nodded, and Eren went to stand behind the Price, putting his hands on his waist and lifting him up.

“Lift your hands, there’s a branch near them. Take a hold of it and hoist yourself up.”

Armin did as he was told, knowing that Eren would securehim if he fell. With a little struggle he managed to get himself on the branch, sitting on top of it as Mikasa guided him to crawlcloser to the wall.

“Stand up carefully and leap towards my voice,” she instructed. This was always the worst part. It wasn’t that Armin didn’t trust his friends, he was just worried he wouldn’t be able to jump far enough and would fall down. If that happened, Armin thought, he would rather die from the fall. Even that would be better than facing the humiliation.

“You can jump now, I’m ready,” Mikasa said. Armin took a deep breath and detached his feet from the branch.

For a second he was sure that the heaven’s gates would open for him at any moment, but instead of that Mikasa’s strong arms catched him before putting him down on the wall. Eren followed behind them and jumped down to the ground while Mikasa tied a rope she had taken with her to the tree. It would serve as a way to get back to the castle later.

“Hey Armin, turn towards here!” Eren shouted a little too loudly. Armin put a finger in front of his mouth and hushed the other.

“Do I need to tell you the meaning of being subtle?” Armin laughed while Mikasa guided him to the edge.

“Well there’s a reason he’s no longer allowed near the horses,” Mikasa said stoically. Only the slight tug at the corner of her mouth revealed she was making fun of Eren.

Eren furrowed his brows, muttering “that’s not funny” under his breath. Mikasa gave Armin a gently push and Eren caught him before he hit the ground.

“Well then, let’s get going!”

* * *

They heard and smelled the festival even before they arrived to the village. The first thing Armin noticed was that the place was full of people: even though Mikasa tried to clear their routethrough the people and Eren guided Armin, people still bumpedinto him. The second thing was the music. Many different instruments were played, and people clapped their hands to their rhythm. The sweet smell of different kinds of foods lingered in the air, making Armin want to try them.

“Describe it to me, please,” the Prince said to Eren. The boy laughed as he motioned Armin to turn right.

“Well, there’s lot of people going around, but I think you noticed that too,” he laughed and continued, “Most of the people are wearing really colorful clothes and costumes. People are dancing all around the place, that’s why there’s so much music, too. All the houses have been decorated with different kind of stuff.” Armin took all the information in, imagining it in his head. He liked being in the village, especially when it wasn’t a formal meeting or briefing of some kind. He took a deep breath, trying to divide all the smells even though he knew it was nearly impossible. It made his stomach remind him of the dinnerhe had passed.

“Can we get something to eat? Everything smells really good,” he said and took a little pouch full of coins from his pocket, stretching his hand toward the direction where he thought Mikasa was, hitting her back and getting her to take the pouch. “Please buy everything that looks good, I’m starving.”

“Okay. Eren, I’m going to buy some food. Don’t lose Armin,” Mikasa said, mostly to inform Eren to take care of Armin till she’d be back.

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry about it!” Eren flashed a bright smile and jerked Armin next to him, wrapping his hand over his shoulders. “We’ll wait in our usual spot by that old house.”

* * *

Eren lead Armin to an area that was further away from the centre of the party. They sat on a step of a house, no extra space between them, waiting for Mikasa to arrive with the food. Armin leaned back to the step behind him, tilting his head in order to hear everything as well as possible. He had put on a lot less fancy set of clothes than usual (the canvas felt rough against his skin) and covered his head with a hood. The probability of being recognized was pretty minimal though, since the common folk rarely saw him and when they did, it was from afar. Armin doubted that the possibility of a Prince walking among them even crossed the people’s minds.

“It feels really good to get outside the castle walls for once, right,” he said. Eren hummed in response.

“I’m not sure what I would do without you and Mikasa,” Armin said, a sudden wave of thankfulness washing over him. The tips of his cheeks heated at the confession and he felt stupid.

“It’s nothing,” Eren’s voice was a bit baffled. “We’re doing this for the food, really.”

Armin chuckled and aimed a punch towards Eren’s arm, but hit a little amiss to his chest. The taller boy caught his fist and held it in his grip.

“You know…” Eren trailed off, but still held Armin’s hand. “I’m… glad that we can take you out. Really. And I’m really happy to serve you. Umm, as a friend!”

Armin furrowed his eyebrows. This wasn’t like Eren at all. “Eren, whatever you’re trying to say, you can. We’ve been friends for years, I don’t think there’s anything you couldn’t say.”

The other took a deep breath and brought Armin’s hand over his heart.

“I’m not sure if there’s any point to this, considering your status,” Eren muttered. Armin’s heartbeats were increasing in speed and he leaned a bit closer to Eren. The boy sounded like he was trying to confess something, and for some reason it made Armin feel restless.

“Tell me Eren, I need to know.”

The air around them felt thick somehow. Armin could feel the other boy’s breath faintly on his cheek. It wasn’t the first time they were this close to each other, but it felt very different from the usual. The light-haired prince took a shaky intake of breath, anticipating for Eren to say or do something, anything.

“Well, I…”

Someone dropped something next to Armin, and the Prince let out a startled cry. The mood was ruined, and whatever Eren was about to say was forgotten as he quickly got up and ran.

“I-I’m gonna get some us some drinks” he yelled, but it was evident from his embarrassed voice that was an excuse.

“Eren!” the person (Armin recognized her as Mikasa by voice) bolted after the boy, not understanding why he had escaped. She left Armin alone, sitting on the step with a pile of food next to him, also as confused as Mikasa had been. Why did Eren run away? Was it because of something he was about to say?

The Prince listened to the voices around him, trying to detect familiar footsteps or the voices of his friends, but he didn’t hear them. He waited for couple of minutes more. Still nothing. After waiting a while longer he decided to eat since the food smelled really delicious and would get cold if he waited any longer. The Prince reached towards the food and took whatever hit his hand first, which happened to be a piece of bread. Taking a bite, Armin moaned internally as the taste hit him fully and he finally got something to fill his empty stomach with.

Minutes passed, but Eren and Mikasa still weren’t back. Armin ate some more, but his appetite died quickly when worry overtook him. What if something had happened? Eren’s behaviour had been strange. Did he ran away because of him?

There were so many people around Armin didn’t take notice of the footsteps approaching him from the side before they were right next to him. Someone crouched down next to the stairs.

Something sharp was pressed between Armin’s shoulder blades, under his cloak so that no one else could see it. Blood drained from the Prince’s face. He couldn’t scream or fight if he didn’t want what he assumed was dagger to pierce his skin. Being seen by Eren or Mikasa was his only hope.

A deep male voice that evoked a faint recognition in Armin’s consciousness said:

“Get up and walk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it’s 7 AM and we haven’t slept all night but hey, it’s done! There are probably some grammar issues there, sorry about them. Jazzy is a sucker for blind!Armin, that was pretty much the motivation behind this tbh. The next chapter will be up in the near future, please let us know what you think!  
> Thank you for reading!
> 
> ~Jazzy & Janice


	2. Seeing is poison for the eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His chances of escaping were narrowing down with every passing moment. For the second time that day Armin felt like crying.  
> Several parties are beginning their search for the lost prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated fully for building up the plot. We'll focus more on the characters and their relationships on the next one, so prepare your panties. Once again if you spot any major mistakes please tell us!

To be honest, Eren didn't even know where he wanted to go and what he was going to achieve by it. At the moment the only thing that mattered was to get away, really. The brunet's face felt so hot, like it would melt at any second. So he shoved his way through the crowd.

 _I fucked up, I fucked up_ kept repeating over in his head. Why had he opened his stupid mouth and almost spilled his stupid feelings to Armin, who had just sat there looking even more kissable than usual? Eren had just almost kissed a prince, for Christ's sake! And he was his servant and a friend. A friend! Even that was too much: the fact that Armin had befriended him and Mikasa just days after Rivaille had found them on the streets and convinced the King to take them in was something that didn't happen to everyone. And here he was, taking advance of Armin and his friendliness.

Light but determinant footsteps caught up to Eren's. Either Mikasa was completely oblivious to when Eren needed some space or just elected to ignore it.

"Eren," she said, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "What's wrong?" Eren knew better than to try and shake his friend off. Instead he stepped aside from the moving crowd, leaning to a wall. He rubbed the back of his (most likely blushing) neck.

"I just… I just needed moment to cool off that's all."

"Did something happen with Armin?"

"I said something… Inappropriate. Well, kind of."

"Did you confess to him?" Mikasa's expression was stoic.

"You knew?! For how long?"

"How could I not? It's pretty obvious from the way you can't keep your hands to yourself."

Eren felt like jumping off a cliff. Something occurred to him, however.

"Hey. Did you leave Armin alone?"

"..."

Suddenly the image of Armin, all by himself in a crowd, filled Eren's mind. Something moved uncomfortably in the bottom of his stomach.

"Let's head back." His uneasiness affected Mikasa, and before Eren took a step she was already running to the direction where they had came. The closer they came to the spot they had left the Prince, the faster they ran.

"Armin!" Eren yelled as he came around the corner. He expected to see Armin, eating the food Mikasa had left behind, sitting on the step without a worry in the world. The truth wasn't that, though, since the Prince was nowhere to be seen.

"Armin?" this time it was Mikasa who said the name out loud. Anxiety settled in Eren's heart and he started to pace around the place, desperately trying to find the boy. Some of the food had been eaten, he noticed and took couple of steps to peek at an alley next to the house where a little wellwas located, _needing_ to see Armin there, drinking or washing his hands. Nothing. When he looked back he saw Mikasa walking away, also looking for the Prince.

"This can't be happening," he muttered under his breath, "Where are you, Armin?"

* * *

They were walking away from the festival, Armin noted. He couldn't hear the music in the distance anymore and the only sounds that reached his ears were his and his captor'sfootsteps and breathing. He had tried his best to analyze the situation, and after going through all the possible plans he could've thought of he had decided to do as the man behind him had told him, so he kept walking without any resistance. He couldhavescreamed, yes, or even tried to escape, but the man behind him was much bigger than him and would have caught him with ease. The screamingalso could've made the situation worse because Armin didn't know if there was anyone else around.

But the thing that confused him the most was that who his kidnapper was. He had recognized the voice, but he couldn't remember who it belonged to. It had been deep and gruff, clearly a male. Armin associated it with the smell of horses and sweat. It was either a servant or a guard, that was for sure.

They came to a halt, and the blade on his back dug a little deeper. "There's steps ahead of you," the man said. The more he talked the more it irked Armin he couldn't place the person. He raised his leg tentatively until it hit the first step.

"Hey!" Someone shouted behind them, "Where are you taking the Prince, Braun?"

Braun! That was the name Armin had been looking for. Reiner Braun, one of the soldiers that worked with Mikasa.

"Nowhere in particular. I think you should leave, Kierstein."

Yes, the other speaker was Jean. Armin knew the guard vaguely, even though he and Eren didn't get along. Reiner's grip on Armin's shoulder tightened.

"Gee, I wonder what the King would think about your little walk with his nephew. I bet Mikasa would be thrilled too," Jean's voice approached them. The tall man behind Armin turned his torso and Armin readied himself. If the two guards would begin a fight he might be able to make a run for it.

"You really don't want to do that. This is the last warning you'll get Kierstein."

There was a pause.

"I won't if you take me with you."

Another pause. Armin tried to process what Jean had just said. He was siding with his captors?

"Why?" Reiner said warily.

"Let's just say I'm getting sick of this shitty little village. I didn't get the top ranks from the Military so I could rot in the middle of nowhere, babysitting a blind kid."

 _Ouch._ Armin's intuition told him he would need to give Jean's words a little more consideration when the time would be appropriate.

"So how's it gonna be?"

There were noises approaching from an alley nearby.

"Reiner, what the hell are you waiting for?" a voice asked from inside a carriagethey were about to enter. This one Armin recognized straight away. Annie. Wow, the betrayals just kept piling up. Well, Armin had anticipated this one though, since they were part of the same gang with Reiner. Berthold was very likely with them too.

"Fine, get on both of you," Reiner huffed. He grabbed Armin's waist, making the younger boy yelp and gently but firmly put lifted inside the carriage.

As soon as everyone was onboard the horses pulling the carriages set off.

Armin, who had been sat between Reiner and Annie, folded his hands onto his lap and bit down to his lower lip. His chances of escaping were narrowing down with every passing moment.

For the second time that day he felt like crying.

* * *

They hadn't said a word since their search for Armin had failed. Mikasa sat on the step where they had left Armin, and Eren paced back and forth, sometimes stopping to kick a stone or hit something to let his anger and worry out.

"We should tell the King," Mikasa said calmly, but knowing her for years the brunet could tell that she too was really worried.

"Yeah, and then we would end up dead or worse, in the dungeon. This was my fault!"

"It was _our_ fault," the girl said and stood up. She didn't say it to make Eren feel better, no. She said it because it was true.

They kept on searching the areas nearby, questioning everyone who might have seen something. Unfortunately Armin wasn't a figure that stood out - that had been their goal fromthe beginning - so no one around had really seen anything noteworthy.

Just as Eren started to seriously consider just running around, yelling Armin's name like a lunatic, his sleeve was tugged. A dirt-covered little boy, who could have been a younger version of Eren, handed him a little crumpled piece of paper and ran off, merging into the crowd.

"He-hey!" Eren tried to shout after him, but the boy was already gone.

"Do you want me to go get him?" Mikasa questioned. Her words barely registered to Eren, who read the text on the note over and over. The female soldier reached over his friends shoulder to read it. She gasped silently.

"We won't have time to go to the castle if we don't want to lose them," she said quickly.

"The King needs to know! I'll go after them, you go tell Erwin about this."

"No. I'm going with you," Mikasa stated.

"But…"

"Eren, You're wasting our time. What you are about to do can be considered treason. I'll come with you. I'll protect you."

There was no time for arguing or getting annoyed at Mikasa's mother hen-attitude, and to be honest, Eren had to acknowledge the fact that Mikasa would most likely prove helpful. Eren didn't even have a proper sword on him, only a portable dagger. He sighed.

"Fine. But if the situation requires it, we will part. For Armin. You got that?" Mikasa cast her eyes down, which meant she agreed reluctantly.

"Let's get the message to the palace first."

They nodded in a mutual agreement and started to run. In his mind Eren tugged his guilt away, to make way to the anger and determination. They had a goal, a direction. That was all that mattered in the long run.

The little piece of paper was tugged carefully into Eren's pocket. The writer hadn't signed it, but the tone was ridiculously easy to recognize and it made Eren's blood boil. _What the hell is that bastard up to?_

While running, they collided with one of the soldier of Mikasa's troop,Connie Springer, who was spending his well earned day off. He quickly found himself with a foldedpaper in hand and one, clearly urgentEren in front of him.

"You! I need you to take this paper to the King, okay?" Eren all but yelled, trying to leave as soon as possible after Armin.

"W-wait, what?"

Mikasa came to stand over Eren.

"Take the note to the King. You don't have to do anything else. Go."

Connie nodded slowly and started to walk away, glazing behind him couple of times before speeding up to a run. Mikasa was ranked high in the army, so Connie had no other choice than to follow her order.

"Will Erwin understand the message?" Eren wondered aloud. Mikasa turned around, patted him on the shoulder and lifted her scarf to her mouth, showing just how nervous she was too.

"He's a wise man. Let's hope so."

* * *

Erwin was signing important papers when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," he muttered while reading a letter from one of the embassadors.

A soldier stumbled in, breathing heavily. Erwin set the papers down. This kind of entrance was rarely a good sign. The young man gave his king a hasty salute.

"My apologies Your Highness! Ackerman ordered me to transmit this message at once. He handed Erwin a crumbled piece of paper. The king concealed his bafflement. This was very uncharacteristic from the stoic troop leader.

"I see. You are dismissed."

Once the office was empty Erwin smoothed the paper piece over, scanning the words that had clearly been scribbled in haste, for a few times.

As soon as the implications sank in the King stood up and strode out of his office. He made his way determinately towards his nephew's sleeping chambers, making sure not to look too alarmed.

Erwin's relief upon seeing the bulge on Armin's bed was short lived as he noticed it was just a faux and the Prince was nowhere to be seen. _I got fooled by a blind kid_. This would take a while to live down.

Well, there was definitely no time to dwell on it. Erwin stormed into the entrance hall, where Rivaille could be found as usual. As soon as the King saw the irritated crease over his employee's brow, he knew the answer to the question he was about to ask.

"Rivaille."

"Your Highness?"

"Where's the boy who works for you?"

"Jaeger-brat? He went missing a few hours ago."

Erwin's shoulders sagged a bit as he nodded. "I see."

Armin, Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman were missing. That fact combined to the message Erwin had received made it pretty clear what had happened. He could do the math.

_good job jaeger_

_heading north with the prince_

"Come help me get the horses ready."

* * *

The night had fallen over them. Eren had tried to continue, to get the horse go faster, but eventually Mikasa had forcefully got him to stop. After getting Connie to take the message they had used the money Armin had given earlier to "buy" a horse (Mikasa had used her power as a soldier too, but hey, desperate times) and some supplies before taking off.

"We need sleep, Eren," she had whispered, "it's no good if we find Armin but are too tired to fight."

"Just a while longer, we might be near!"

"Eren. We're stopping now."

That's how they ended up in a old barn in the middle of the fields surrounding the village, taking shelter from the cold night. Now they regretted the choice of not buying some more clothes to keep them warm. They were sitting in a corner, side by side, like they used when they were small. Mikasa was resting her eyes, ready to react if something was about to happen while Eren, on the other hand, had tried to get some sleep, but Armin's disappearance haunted him. Minutes passed, turning into hours, and he was still awake. Eventually he got too tired and closed his eyes, his mind drifting to the time when Mikasa and he had met the Prince the first time.

* * *

It had felt strange to wear clean clothes and not to have dirt all over their bodies. Rivaille (he was the castle's "housemaid," but Eren had quickly learned not to call him that after getting hit by a wet rag) had given Mikasa and him a room and a lot of food, and even though he had looked like a scary guy he got a softer side in him, too.

"You're doing it wrong," the short man said. It had taken ten minutes to get Eren to stay in place and another five to get the concept of mopping into the boy's head. "Here, hold it like this. No, not like… okay, go help Mikasa, I'm getting a headache because of this." One wouldn't think mobbing would have been so hard, but for that brat…

Eren ran away to where Mikasa was dusting a shelf full of old and boring looking books. She was trying to reach to the books that were on top, but she was too short.

"Wait a second," Eren laughed and went to pick up a nearby chair. It had books on top of it - well, yeah, the place was a library, but still there were way too many books for Eren's comprehension- and to get the chair Eren had to lift them down, right in front of the door frame. _Well,_ he thought, _we're gonna put them back soon enough._ That in mind Eren took the chair to the bookshelf and stood on it, taking the dusterfrom Mikasa and holding it so that she couldn't reach it. She was just about to hit Eren and the boy was readying himself for war when Rivaille gave them a side glance.

"Oi, no fighting when I'm in charge," he said and gestured Mikasa to come to mop the floor, muttering "I should have known that she's the smarter one," probably not caring if the kids heard it or not.

Eren grinned and experimentally wiped the covers of the books. Putting this much effort into keeping a book tidy didn't really make sense to him. However as long as Eren was fed on a regular bases and wasn't in a constant danger of getting robbed or beaten up, he was content.

He stopped wiping when he saw a small, blond boy get closer to the door. He was about the same age as he and Mikasa, and was dressed in a tidy, silky shirt and a vest. The boy was getting scarily close to the pile of books on the floor. _Why isn't he dodging the already?_

Before Eren had time to yell a warning to the boy he had already tripped over the books, landing on his side on the ground.

"Hey!" Eren yelled, got down from the chair and ran over to the boy, "Are you okay? How couldn't you see th…"

Eren had lifted the boy in a sitting posture, and he was staring the boy straight into the light blue eyes that seemed to look through him. The boy didn't have time to answer, though, because in seconds Rivaille was crouched next to them, gently checking that the blond boy was okay.

"Does it hurt anywhere, Prince Arlert?"

Wait, a _prince?!_

"No, I'm fine," the Prince said with a gentle voice.

"We're cleaning the library and I forgot to tell the brats not to leave anything on the floor. It's my bad."

"It's understandable."

Rivaille helped the blond boy to his feet and glanced around. Because of the cleaning there was stuff all around, and it would have been nearly impossible for the Prince to get to his reading corner without hurting himself.

"Eren, take the Prince to that corner there," the man said and gestured toward a corner which had a sofa in it.

Eren went next to the Prince, unsure how he should lead the boy. Rivaille took the Prince's hand and placed it on Eren's shoulder, making him jump.

"Umm…"

"Get going."

Eren took couple of tentativesteps forward and the other boy followed him. Slowly they started to make their way through all the stuff on the floor. While walking, Eren looked over his shoulder, and the light blue eyes looked back, not actually seeing anything. Eren had to look away. He hadn't met a blind person before, and wasn't entirely sure how to deal with it. Once they had reached the corner Eren guided the boy to sit on the couch.

"What is your name?"

The question startled Eren, but he managed to say his name.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Armin. You can call me like that or use something else, I don't mind."

Eren relaxed a bit and smiled, but then, remembering that Armin couldn't see, quickly made a sound of agreement.A comfortable silence fell over them.

"Can you read?" Armin finally asked. Eren shook his head.

"I can recognize letters but…" There really hadn't been a reason for him to know how to read. Armin reached towards a table and grabbed the first book that hit his hand.

"If you read out the letters I'll tell what the word is." Eren looked at Rivaille who gave him a curt nod.

"O-okay."

* * *

Mikasa's voice was what woke Eren up. Rays of sunlight seeped through the roof of the barn and the air was cold and fresh.

"We're leaving in an hour," she said after Eren had sat up and gave him an apple to eat.

"Did you sleep at all?" Eren asked her, taking a bite.

"A little," she answered as she hid a yawn into her scarf.

"You know, I saw the weirdest dream…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things about this AU (in case anyone cares): We call it a "historical" AU even though it's not entirely (or even closely) accurate. The country this story takes place in is made up, we won't probably even name it. The time period is somewhere between 1700 and 1800 since that's around when Braille was invented. Things aren't still quite as developed as during the Renaissance - that's partly because Armin lives at the countryside - but are still a bit more advanced than during the Middle Ages. A few small things were added to the first chapter to support this. We try to be somewhat accurate (Armin's way of experiencing the world through smell and touch helps this a lot). Some things are a bit inaccurate for the sake of the characters and the plot though, like the fact that Mikasa is able to be a soldier.
> 
> There won't probably be another chapter before the 24th so have a great Christmas/Hanukkah/holidays/whatever you are about to do, our amazing readers! Look out for people stalking behind your windows & stuff. It could be us
> 
> ~Jazzy & Janice


	3. Hearing is not seeing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin learns more about the situation. Erwin takes serious measures on finding the lost prince.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh… we're sorry it took so long for us to do this? No excuses, we just couldn't get ourselves to write ;_; So sorry! But as a reward (remember to read the last AN) you get to decide in which pairing we'll be focusing more! Good reward, eh? EH?
> 
> Also, if you see any of our typical, stupid big mistakes in grammar please tell us. For every big grammar mistake in the text one Finnish high school student fails a test. Don't let that happen, it could be us!

When Armin woke up from his uneasy sleep he couldn't tell if it was day or night. All he knew was that Reiner snored loudly and the rope that tied his hands behind his back was too tight. They had been traveling for approximately two days, but Armin couldn't be sure. They never slept more than couple of hours at the time and moved from place to place daily. They really had made sure that he would be kept oblivious to their plans or where they were headed and they had ignored all Armin's attempts of keeping up small talk. Without anyone to talk with Armin had had a chance to think about things inside out, but it didn't help when he was all by himself.

Bertholdt Fubar had joined the others a day before, which didn't come as a surprise to Armin - the three of them, Bertholdt, Annie and Reiner, had always been talking in the hallways and walking together, and clearly planning a kidnap too on their leisure. But Armin didn't know their motives at all and it irked him. There were many reasons to kidnap a member of the royal family, too many to count, and the amounts of possible reasons behind the situation had given Armin a headache.

Jean's presence was a mystery too, but Armin thought that he could talk with the boy if he got the chance. He most likely had seen the kidnapping by accident, or that's how it had seemed, but it was hard to say if that was the case.

Armin sat up and tried to stretch his tired muscles. Sleeping on the floor in many different places without a mattress and having only a thinblanket to cover him really made him miss his own bed. His hands, which were most of the time tied behind his back, didn't help him the slightest either.

A silent "Good morning" was heard from other side of the room. The voice belonged to Bertholdt. Back in the castle he had helped Armin get some books from upper shelves many times, and the blond had considered him a proper person. Not a friend, but someone who he thought he could have trusted. Well, that was all past now. He answered the other with a nod.

"We're leaving soon, so if you feel hungry I could give you something to eat. If you want?"

Armin nodded again and waited for Bertholdt to untie his hands. There was no need for the ropes anyway, but Annie was the one that wanted to have Armin tied up "just in case." Armin had thought of running away, but it didn't take a genius to understand that it would be fruitless. He had no idea where he was or how far they were from other people, so playing along was the only thing he was capable of right now. If only he could get some information from his kidnappers!

* * *

"Where you think you're going?"

Jean turned around, hiding the fact that Reiner's voice had startled him. "Just taking a piss. Relax. We're in middle of a forest, there's nowhere I could even go."

Reiner snorted and went back inside the old building that was barely standing up, shouting "We're leaving soon so don't take long if you don't plan on walking" before closing the partly broken door.

Jean waited until he no longer heard any voices besides singing of the birds and the sound of the wind going through leaves before making his way further away from the old building. He started to run to get to a small sand road they had used to get to the building.

_Time to play a messenger._

Jean had been hiding little notes about where they were going since he had joined Braun, Fubar and Leonhardt. The first one had been the hardest to get to the right persons - he had gone to buy some essential things that Reiner had needed (it was a gamble, really, because they could've left without him, but in the end his plan had worked) and while getting all the things, he had bribed a stray child to take his hastily scribbled note to Mikasa and Eren. Jean wasn't absolutely positive the note had found its way to them since the soldier had only told the boy to look for "a beautiful girl with long, shoulder long hair and a boy with stupid face and short, dark brown hair." All he could do was hope.

At the momentJean had counted that he had been away approximately for twenty minutes at max. He had assumed that by the time he'd be back the others were already leaving. That wasn't the case though, which was strange.

"...has been flooding, so there's no way we can use the bridge."

"Are you sure? I'll take longer than three days until we get to the mountains if we have to go around."

Braun and Fubar. Jean made sure to crouch behind a bush before they could detect him.

"A traveler told me when I went to buy equipment. I'm sorry Reiner,but we have to go through theforest."

"For fuck's sake. I just want to get back to the base. Every extra day out here heightens the risk of getting the army all over our asses. Annie is about to snap, too."

They both stopped talking, giving Jean a change to crawlcloser to them.

Fubar said the next line so quietly Jean could barely make it out: "And once we're there we'll just… hand him over?"

"Don't tell me you're starting to feel guilty at this point."

There was a pause.

"Look, Bertie, don't let it get to you. We would have been better off if it had just been about assassinating him. That would have been easy. However, we had to spend years and years biding our time, so that we could take his ass unharmed to the mountains. They're not gonna kill him, not as long as he might be useful at least. And anyway, it's not our problem."

"I know."

"We need to stay focused."

"I _know._ "

"That's more like it. Anyway, let's get Annie. She'll decide whether we'll cross the woods."

"I… I'll get her, but before that…" the tall soldier started, but the rest of the sentence was a low whisper Jean couldn't catch. As they started to talk way too quietly Jean decided to crawl somewhere where the two men couldn't see him before appearing before them. It also gave him some time to think about what he had just heard and what he knew beforehand - they had been heading Northfor some time now, and the only thing that was there was mountains. Well, mountains and more people like Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie, it seemed. Their goal was to get the Prince there, unharmed, but any other motive was unclear to Jean.

He made sure he was not within the men's field of vision before getting up. He took couple of deep breaths and summoned up an aura of carefreeness.

Reiner, whose back was turned towards him, was first to notice him. "Took you long enough, Kirchstein," he said, clearly wondering how it had taken so much time to take a leak.

"Yeah, I checked the surroundings too while I was at it. Everything's ok, by the way." The lie slipped easily from his mouth and if Reiner's stoic face was anything to go by he bought it. He waved his hand towards the house, gesturing Jean to go followed him inside. The prince was sitting against a wall, an apple in hand while Leonhardt watched over him from the other side of the room. The place they stayed in was old and the roof leaked, but luckily the building had one almost intact room where they had slept. The only sources of light were a small window near the ceiling and a dim lantern.

Jean sat down not too close to the Prince, but close enough to check if he was alright (it had become a habit to keep an eye on the Prince, but it was only because he was supposed to protect him, right? He was a soldier!) and took an apple that was lying on the ground. Bertholdt went to whisper something to Leonhardt, but it was once again too quiet for him to hear.

"There are more apples in the sack," she said like he was talking to Fubar, but as they made their way out of the room Jean realized she had been talking to him.

"Rude people," he muttered under his breath.

"Are we alone?"

It took Jean seconds to realize someone had spoken and couple of more to realize whose voice it was.

"Huh? What?"

"I asked if we're in this room alone," came the reply.

"Yeah, we're alone." Jean stood up and checked the door just in case, but no one was there. He sat down closer to the Prince so that they could talk without anyone else hearing it now that they had gotten the chance to do so.

"You're Jean Kirchstein **,** right? A soldier from the castle?" Jean nodded, but then he reminded himself of the fact that the Prince couldn't see it and muttered an agreement.

"If you're unsure about my motives," Jean started and checked the door once again, "I can assure you that I'm only here on the behalf of my job as a soldier. I happened to see when they were putting you into the carriage and I had to make a decision in the heat of the moment."

The Prince sat quietly, thinking Jean's words over as he massaged his wrists that seemed to cause him pain.

"I thought that was the case, but I never had the chance to talk about it. Well, not at least before this. Have you heard anything from them? Have they slipped anything about where we're heading or what's going to happen when we get there?" The Prince asked curiously. Jean lowered his voice and turned his eyes towards the entrance.

"They're talking to each other right now. About having to use a different route through the forest. We've been heading North the whole time if I'm right."

Armin stopped massaging his wrists for a moment before whispering something under his breath.

"Uh, I didn't really catch that."

"You said we're heading North **.** My uncletold me rebels are camping near the mountains because of the difficult environment. The place is full of good hiding spots and despite sending some troopsthere we have only caught a handful of people."

"Yeah, I think that's the case. Heard Fubar and Braun talking outside about handing you over unharmed, but that's all I got."

Armin seemed to fall in deep thought and knowing the Prince was smart Jean let him think. His eyes trailed over to the Prince's slightly red wrists. They didn't look that bad, but hey, the boy was royalty and even that amount of pain must have caused him moregriefthat it would have to Jean. Years spent in army really taught how to deal with being hurt.

He acted on an impulse and took one of the Prince's hands in his to get a better look at the damage, startling the other.

"Sorry, Your Highness," Jean whispered, "Can't risk them getting infected."

"In this kind of situation I think calling me Armin is fine."

Jean huffedin response. He rose up and fetched a small dish of water that was on the corner and some rags to use as gauze.

The Prince - no, Armin - was waiting for him, hands already raised up, waiting for Jean to take a hold of them.

"How do you do that?"

Armin let out a barely audible laugh and smiled for the first time in days. "Intuition, I guess."

Silence fell over them as Jean washed Armin's wrists with a cloth and then wrapped them with clean rags to prevent them from getting more hurt.

"Have you… thought about escaping?"

Armin nodded. "I have, but none of the plans could have worked. Even now if you really are on my side it's two against three. They're not letting me out of their sight and in days we're in an enemy territory. Not much two persons can do."

"Actually," Jean started, "It's not just us. Or that's what I hope. I've been leaving notes behind for Mikasa and the asshole, and if they have gotten even some of them the King should be aware of the situation too. I'm a genius, right?" he said with a smirk.

Armin laughed softly.

"I never understood what it was about you and Eren that didn't click. Anyway, that's good. If they are about to 'hand me over' to another party I think the smartest course of action would be to wait for that. There's little to nothing we can do as long as we're on the road and there's nowhere to go."

Armin had his theories about who was waiting for him at the mountains, but there was no reason to tell that to Jean just yet. He wasn't sure about it, anyway.

He wasn't sure about Jeans motives, either. 'I'm only here on behalf of my job as a soldier.' _Right._ To this day Armin had never crossed a soldier with a working morale that strong. Even Mikasa, who was the definition of dedicated, was not driven by duty, but her need to protect her loved ones. Surely Jean had some other motivation.

Well, at the moment he was Armin's only ally and definitely worth keeping.

The Prince reached around until his hand was resting lightly somewhere near Jean's shoulder and raised the corners of his mouth.

"Jean I'm… I'm thankful for what you did. This would be awful if I were alone and I guess I'm just… I'm very happy you're here."

The other boy was thankful for the fact that Armin couldn't see the light blush that was starting to appear on his cheeks. "Uh, thanks," he replied clumsily. This wasn't like him! Then again, the distant regal and a soldier-protocol didn't really apply to this situation, Jean supposed.

* * *

Rebellions? Piece of cake. War? No problem. A missing, blind, sheltered heir to the throne? Everything was doomed.

Well, not exactly, but Erwin was certain he was about to burst a blood vessel. As if finding prince Armin wasn't difficult a task in itself, Erwin also had to make sure that the word wouldn't get into the capital. Mass hysteria and a big group of bounty hunters would only make things that much worse. He had sent off soldiers to find the missing prince, but as if the task wasn't hard enough they had to rely on the notes that were passed on them **.** 'Heading North' wasn't very helpful when it actually came down to navigation, but he had to trust the people that had been put on the job while he himself tried to keep all the strings in his hands. Along Armin, Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman, four other people were missing: Bertholdt Fubar, Annie Leonhardt, Reiner Braun and Jean Kirchstein. It hadn't been hard to put two plus two together.

Once it would all be over there would be people demanding Jaeger and Ackerman's heads for abandoning the village instead of reporting back to the castle. It would be a shame since Erwin understood their motives and wouldn't care to lose one of hisbest soldiers. That was a problem to be dealt with later, fortunately. The traitors would get a fair share of wrathon them eventually too for taking his nephew away from the castle walls.

Besides, if the Prince wouldn't make it back alive it would be someone else whose head would be at risk. Erwin would make sure that every single person that had been in charge of the things that happened to Armin would have the most slowest, painfullest way of death imaginable. Hanji and Rivaille would make sure of it.

Speaking of Rivaille, now that Erwin thought about it the situation was getting worse and worse. He couldn't really trust his soldiers or Mikasa and Eren to save Armin and since he was tied up with his duties and had to keep low profileso that everything wouldn't get out of hand the only thing he was capable of was leading everything from the castle. But Rivaille, the "housemaid" of the castle could be the answer to his problem. He knew the man had a soft spot for him - they shared a history after all, so it would be worth the shot.

Finding the short man wasn't a problem. He was scrubbingthe windows on the second floor with the help of couple of maids. They were alerted of the arrival of the King by the sounds of his footsteps and after quick bows Erwin dismissed the ladies.

"You look like you want something from me," Rivaille stated as he continued to rub the windows.

Erwin smiled lightly despite the situation. "You know me too well. I'm sorry to disturb your work, but I think we both would rather discuss about things somewhere more private."

Rivaille sighed and put his things down. "So it's serious after all. I kind of hoped it would have been about our usual activities, but I have a hunch that I'm not going to like what you're about to suggest."

Erwin led them to a seldom used study room before closing the door and turning to face the other man.

"It's about Armin," Rivaille pointed out.

"It is."

"The answer is no."

Erwin pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm not pleading or commanding you to do it. I'm asking this as… a personal favour." He took his hand from his face and looked Rivaille in the eye. "Please. Armin is important - both for me and the kingdom. I know you dislike your previous position as humanity's strongest soldier, but for now it's all I can think of."

Rivaille walked to the only window in the room and watched out. Minutes passed and Erwin let one wave of nervousness wash over him. Only one because he was the King and because he trusted Rivaille to agree.

"I thought you said you were not pleading Erwin," Rivaille sighed and turned to face the taller man, "I'll do it, but remember this: I'm taking your horse and the castle must be spotless when I come back."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry once again this took so long, we were struggling with pacing and grammar more than usual. Turns out there's a significant difference between 'taking a leak' and 'taking a leek'. English is a great language, isn't it?  
> We'll post the next chapter as soon as we have dealt with a certain one shot, hopefully it won't take too long.  
> By the way, we'd like to know if our readers would like to see more jearmin or eremin? Let us know in the comments!
> 
> ~Janice & Jazzy


	4. Seeing Is Believing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kidnappers are approaching the mountains and time is starting to run out for the rescuers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! After all this time we're actually back! Wow. Miracles do happen. We apologize for the hiatus, but here it is, the long awaited final chapter. And smut. We deliver what we promise. Eremin won, but there's still some Jearmin moments :)

Eren dreamed of sleeping. After Armin's disappearance his dreams had become nightmares about things that could have happened to Armin. Torture, abuse, Armin alone, screaming, and every time Eren closed his eyes he couldn't do anything about it. Mikasa knew about his restless dreams, no doubt about it, but she hadn't said anything. She worried too, but didn't let it show.

They were walking along a sand road, Eren riding the horse and Mikasa walking next to him. The horse (Eren had jokingly began to call it Jean after it had thrown him on the ground couple of times) was getting tired since they had quickened their pace in hopes of catching up with Armin and his kidnappers.

"Are you awake?"

"Yeah. If you're thinking about getting a break I won't mind."

"That has to be the first time during this journey," Mikasa said. In other circumstances Eren would have laughed or said something back, but at the moment he was tired and worried and the only thing in his head was Armin.

He was almost dozing off when Mikasa's sudden movement alerted him and the horse.

"Jean! Calm down!" he yelled, trying to get the startled horse back into his control. "What the fuck Mikasa?"

The girl had disappeared into the bushes without a warning.

"Mikasa?"

He got off the horse and looked around him. His eyes scanned the surroundings and caught something on the ground. Two sticks that didn't look special, but that were positioned to look like an arrow that pointed towards the thick bushes. For someone else it wouldn't have meant anything special, but Eren knew immediately what it meant.

As Mikasa emerged back to the road Eren ran to her, forgetting about anything else including making sure the horse wouldn't escape.

"What does it say!" he demanded to know. Mikasa handed him the note.

_Not going to use the bridge_

_heading to the mountains_

_prince is ok for now_

The last sentence took some of the tension off Eren's shoulders. "This is great!" he yelled. "If they have to use detour we may get to them before the mountain area."

Mikasa hummed as an agreement and took the note back. "It can't be more than a day old."

"Let's go then!"

"If we catch up to them do you have a plan?"

"Huh? Yeah," the boy smiled, "It's called 'take the prince, hit some assholes and run'."

Mikasa took a calming breath. His brother was a complete idiot sometimes. "I'm not saying that your plan is bad," she said calmly, "But it is. Let's find shelter."

Eren let out a frustrated growl. "Why? I'm awake."

"The horse isn't."

"His name is Jean."

Mikasa glanced at the horse. " _Her_ name is Jean. We can come up with a plan while she sleeps."

As the black hairedgirl fetched the horse Eren stared after her.

"Jeanette it is," he murmured and started walking after Mikasa.

* * *

After a thorough consideration, Armin had come to the conclusion that he hated the woods. No, that was unreasonable. More like the woods were not a place meant for human beings. Not at least human beings unable to see. Armin had no way of avoiding the devious roots and rocks littered across the path they had taken. The fact that his wrists were tied together in front of him wasn't making him all too graceful either.

Ever since the group had been forced to leave the horses behind they had been hiking through the forest on foot. Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt didn't care about Armin's constant stumbling as long as he managed to somewhat keep up with them. Jean had however eventually taken pity for the prince. Now the soldier was gripping Armin's elbow, gently guiding him past the worst obstacles.

Armin's knees buckled. He would have hit the ground if it hadn't been for Jean who grabbed him with both hands. Whatever was left of the boy's royal pride kicked in right then and he felt frustrated blush covering his cheeks. Not being able to walk by himself was humiliating, but absolutely nothing in his life had prepared Armin for day-long hikes in difficult terrain. There was no strength left in his limbs.

"Oy," Jean shouted irritatedly while supporting Armin, "We need to stop, he can't go on any longer!"

Bertholdt and Reiner looked behind them and stopped. They both turned their gazes to Annie, who was trailing behind all of them.

"If he's still conscious we'll continue," she stated. Her words made Jean groan.

"You heard her," Reiner said, "Get on your feet and walk by yourself or I'll tie you up and drag you along."

"Come on! He clearly can't walk! A short break won't kill us, right?" Jean tried. All eyes turned towards Annie, who watched the prince breath heavily on the ground.

"It wouldn't be good if he dropped now, would it?" Jean pressed on.

"Fine!" Annie raised her voice. "We'll take a break, anhour tops. If he can't walk by then you'll carry him. Got it?"

Jean nodded and after Annie made sure the spot would be safe they put their stuff on the ground and sat down.

Armin hugged his knees. "Thanks Jean. I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble," he said quietly. Jean rubbed the back of his neck.

"These people are nuts," he muttered.

The wind was howling and blowing right through the delicate fabric of Armin's cloak. You'd think that it wouldn't manage to blow so hard in the thick woods, but it did and Armin was shivering. At least the walking had kept him warm.

"It's so cold out here," the smaller boy gasped. "Do you mind if I..?" Jean wasn't sure what he was even asking before Armin inched to sit right next to him.

"O-oh. Right, sure, go ahead."

Armin huddled against Jean's side and after a moment of hesitation Jean wrapped an arm around the prince's shoulders.

_We're just sharing body warmth, nothing weird about it_ , Jean told himself.  _Gods, I'm so full of shit._

It didn't take long for the prince to doze off. Jean made sure that nobody saw when he kept stealing glances of the Prince. He was small for his age, and his petite body shape and narrow shoulders made him look younger than he really was.

Jean wasn't stupid. He trusted Armin as a prince and, after all they had been through, maybe as a friend too. Still the situation felt off. As a soldier his job was to make sure Armin would get back to the castle without a scratch, but as a human being he had started to feel that he wasn't bound to the prince only because of his duty. There was something else, something that made him feel like Armin's and his connection ran deeper.

Awet rag flying towards him alerted him, and only his instincts that came from being a soldier saved him from the humiliation of getting hit on the face.

"We're leaving soon. Wake him up," Annie ordered. The others had also gotten up and were stretching while gathering their things. Jean removed his hands from Armin's shoulder quickly.

"Just a minute."

Annie walked towards Reiner and Berthold, but Jean knew she would keep her eyes on him. She had most likely noticed Jean and Armin getting closer, which wasn't a surprise when taking into account the fact that they were basically under their eyes all the time. That could lead to some trouble.

"Okay, time to wake up," Jean whispered to the sleeping boynext to him.

"Already?" Came the answer that was thick with sleep. "I feel like dying."

"I know. Come on, I'll carry you."

The prince was clearly against that idea, but Jean wouldn't let him walk. He looked over to the others that were waiting for him. They looked impatient.

Jean put his hand on Armin's waist and lifted him up. The prince immediately leaned to get some support. He really hadn't lied about that dying stuff.

"Alright, it's gonna be fine," Jean muttered with a calming voice as he took Armin to his back. He was ridiculously light, but Jean knew he wouldn't feel like that in a couple of hours.

Armin chuckled silently.

"What's funny?" Jean questioned.

"I did always say I wanted to travel well away from the city walls. Every cloud has a silver lining, I guess." After saying that Armin fell asleep, his breath warming the crook of Jean's neck, and the soldier could do nothing but agree.

* * *

"Oi, you got my shoe filthy."

To an outsider the scene would have been hilarious: a small man holding a big one by the collar and the bigger one on the verge of tears.

"I-I'm sorry!" the man cried, "I'll tell you anything!"

Rivaille still looked at his shoe. His expensive leather shoe that had been perfectly clean just a minute ago. And now it was stained by blood.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to get blood out of clothes?" the man looked confused until a hard stare from Rivaille made him gulp.

"It nearly impossible. Isn't that a shame?"

"Anything. I'll tell everything I know! I swear!"

The short man dropped the other on the floor, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiping his hands.

"I don't have all night, you know."

Taking audible deep breaths, the other started to speak. Rivaille gave himself a pat on the backfor his good threatening skills. They hadn't rusted justyet.

The man, who was now sitting on the floor and trying to stop his nose from bleeding told about the rebels, how their amount had been increasing during the last few years and why they had chosen the mountain area as a place for hiding. Rivaille knew almost everything the man said beforehand (being close to the King meant he heard the news firsthand) but as the topic turned to the kidnapping his eyes lit up.

"Why did they kidnap the Prince? You know about that a lot, do you?"

"Y-yes!" the man yelled, clearly relieved he had finally found a topic that interested the short man and could lead to surviving the encounter."I was in some of the meetings. As our numbers grew the ones on the top started talking about havingour own land and after discussing about it we managed to form a plan," the man breathed out. He stopped talking and turned his eyes towards the ground.

"Continue."

"...Before that promise you'll let me go! I have kids and a beautiful wife and -"

The situation was getting on Rivaille's nerves.  _I don't have time for shitty little whiners,_ he thought.

"Yeah yeah, I didn't come here to hear your life story, just get on with it."

The man took a deep breath.

"We knew that a thing wouldn't change in this political setting so we got some… allies."

Well that peaked Rivaille's interest. "Allies?" he asked and tilted his head.

"Y-yes. A certain family. An old one, with power. There was a deal that if we were to deliver the heir to the throne to them…"

"I see," Rivaille muttered. That was all he needed to hear.

* * *

"This has to do."

Reiner and Bertholdt sighed when the words left Annie's mouth and dropped their stuff onto the floor of the small room they had found. Or taken over since the building looked like someone may still be living in it, Jean thought, but he wouldn't complain. If the owner came back it wouldn't be his problem. The room was in the house's cellar, but only partly underground and the only source of light came from two windows that were near the ceiling.

"I'm glad we don't even have to stay the night," Reiner said, and even Jean agreed on that one. He too eyed the enormous rat that had ran behind some wooden boxes and big sacks. Yes, he had carried the Prince for three hours in challenging terrain and considered himself almost exhausted to death, but he would rather do it again than spend the whole night with some rats capable of eating an army. Fortunately they'd continue their journey as soon as the food supplies would be fulfilled.

Armin, who had slept through the whole hike to the small village that was their last resting point before reaching the mountains, hadn't woken up even when Jean had accidently tripped and dropped him.

He crouched down and gently laidArmin on the floor. He was still sleeping and Jean decided against waking him was eyeing the Prince, but seemed to have came to the same conclusion. He looked like he pitied the boy. A cold shiver went through Jean's back when he remembered the conversation between the two men. The rebels wouldn't be merciful with the young prince and everyone in the small room knew it.

Jean shook the cloak off his shoulders and threw it over the sleeping prince. Annie, Reiner and Bertholdt were going through the little supplies they had with them. They had been forced to leave most behind with the horses and the group was running low on food and water.

"We'll get some supplies from the village and then start the final portion of the journey," Annie announced. "Reiner comes with me, Bertholdt stays here."

The two blondes marched outside and the tall soldier, after looking indecisive for a moment, sat on a chair next to the exit.

"Sooo," Jean started, "How long it'll take before we're at the destination?"

Jean had learnt that when he wanted to ask something he should talk with the tall man if he wanted to get answers. Berthold smiled faintly before answering. "Just a little bit more than a day," he said and furrowed his brow,"If you're asking that because you had to carry the Prince, I'm sure Reiner or Annie can do it too."

"I guess so, but I like to think of this as training. You know, a fast way of getting muscles and all that."

The tall man let out a small laugh and the atmosphere lightened. They made some small talk before a comfortable silence fell over them, and Berthold got up and stretched his tall limbs.

"I'm going outside for awhile. Do you mind watching him during that time? I'll only be away for a couple of minutes.

"Y-yeah, sure," Jean managed to say, surprised of the fact that the other trusted him so much. Fubar smiled and left, but not before locking the door. Jean let out a frustrated breath. He had already hoped for a chance to get away, but Berthold clearly hadn't trusted him enough. With a locked door their chances of escaping were at minimum.

Jean slumped down against the wall next to Armin. The other stirred and got up to a sitting position. Jean hadn't even noticed that the Prince had woken up.

"We're alone, right?" Armin breathed.

"Yeah," Jean said and watched as one rat ate something in the corner - it looked like a huge spider. Oh dear.

"Can you tell what's around us? Tell every single detail!" Armin demanded.

Jean looked at the Prince, his eyebrows going up. "You did hear when Fubar locked the door, right? Or are you deaf too?" the joke left his lips before he could actually think what he had said, but Armin didn't seem to notice the kind of offending joke.

"Jean, I demand you to tell me. Prince's orders."

"Oh, the royal card," Jean snickered and stood up, "Uh, there's really not much. Couple of windows that are near the ceiling, wooden boxes that are full of… bags of crops?" Jean said as he lifted one cover off and looked inside a box. "Nothing else. If you don't count in those gigantic rats. One of them is staring at you from the corner. I think it wants to eat you? I saw it eat the biggest spider I have ever seen and trust me, compared to that you'd be just a snack."

Armin hummed as he stood up, taking support from the wall. "Do you think I could fit in one of the boxes? And if you could get yourself out of one of the windows?"

Jean stood still, a little bit confused until he sizedthe box and the window up with his eyes.

"If I say yes does that mean you have a plan?"

Jean didn't need an answer as a tiny smirk formed on Armin's face.

* * *

Rivaille had expected to see many things from his stalking place in the shadows of the leaves and branches high up in a tree. For example, he had been sure that the short, blonde woman and the big walking mass of muscle he had seen walking in the opposite direction were hiding in some of the sheds or abandoned old buildings he could see from the tree. He had expected to see many other things apart from spotting one of the soldiers, Jean Kirchstein, pushing himself and what seemed to be at least ten bags of something out of the window - it was an entertaining sight to see, the soldier getting his ass stuck for a moment - and if the situation would have been less serious with the missing Prince and all Rivaille would have smiled or even laughed.

After getting his body and the bags out of the window the boy closed it, but left it slightly open. Then he struggled to grasp all the bags and took off into the woods.

As strange as the sight had been, it only took a few minutes more to get even stranger. The short woman (somewhere in his mind Rivaille reminded himself that he was only a little bit taller than her) and the walking mountain went into the same building where Kirchstein had just went out, and moments later the two of them and the tall, sweaty one came out too, went to see the window and then started running in the same direction as Kirchstein.

When all of the kidnappers were out of his sight Rivaille jumped down from his hiding spot and after making sure nobody was around he went to check things out. It wouldn't hurt to take a look around while the kidnappers were busy.

* * *

Armin's plan had been great - well, as great as a plan that was improvised in a few minutes could be - but Jean was realizing that there was something neither him or Armin had thought of: All three of Armin's kidnappers were now running after him, and they weren't as slow as Jean had wished. He had already lost some time hiding the bags and now he was breathing hard, his legs were giving up under him and he could hear the sounds of his chasers behind him.

Years of being a soldier told Jean to expect an impact, and seconds later a heavy weight slammed against his back, sending him flying. He took the hit with his shoulder and, despite the pain radiating to his arm from his injury, quickly rolled overand stood up, stepping away from Reiner as he tried to hit him.

Jean didn't need to see that his three opponents unsheathed their swords. He'd recognize the sound in his sleep.  _Crap._  Truth be told he had no clue how he was going to survive three elite soldiers without his sword. Instead of dwelling on that, Jean sprinted away. Well, he tried, but the light footsteps that he heard coming after him told that Annie was about to attack. That woman plus a sword was a killing machine and even though Jean knew they wouldn't kill him because they'd need to know where the Prince was they could still seriously hurt him.

Jean wasn't a big fan of being hurt.

Jean braced himself for pain and misery as felt his legs give out under him, but they never came. Looking around, Jean could have sworn it was an angel (it wasn't, but seeing Mikasa in that kind of situation would make everyone see angels). She surged towards the blonde without any weapons in her hands and successfully knocked the other's sword down with a kick. Jean tried to get up on his feet, but a kick to his side send him back down. It wasn't Reiner, it wasn't Berthold...

It was the motherfucking Jaeger, looking at him angrily and cursing, before he let out some sort of a war cryand lunged towards Berthold, who was looking really stressed and was clearly unsure whether he should join the battle or not .

"Fucking brat," Jean muttered under his breath and hauled himself up. He could barely get up on his feet before air was knocked out of his lungs again. Reiner had grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed his back against a tree. How a man that big had even managed to sneak upon him, Jean would never know.

"Whoa there," Jean held his hands up as a sign of surrender.

"Where's the Prince?" Reiner asked through gritted teeth. He was shaking slightly, but most likely out of anger. "I fucking knew from the start that you're full of shit."

"C'mon Braun," Jean said, trying to sound calming. "This isn't right and you know it."

"That doesn't answer my question Kirchstein." Rainer raised his fist and Jean braced himself for the face-shattering impact.

This time around there were no saving angels and the fist hit Jean hard in the chin, making him see stars and the answers of the universe in his eyes. He couldn't make himself get up even when he heard more people coming to the battle scene, which wasn't a surprise since all the yelling and the sounds of weapons couldn't go unnoticed.

Minutes later Jean was sitting up and nursing his aching jaw. Reiner Braun's strength had been legendary among the soldiers and Jean was happy that he wouldn't have to suffer from his fists anymore. The big man was laying on the ground, face flat against the rocky soil as the royal troopswere putting him in chains. Berthold was having the same kind of treatment while the Jeager brat paced around. Jean rubbed his chin and let out a long sigh. Armin's plan had worked. The kidnappers had been brought down. They had won. It was over.

Except it wasn't. The two men of the trio had been brought down, but possibly the most dangerous piece of the puzzle was still missing **.**

"Hey… Where's Annie?"

"She's right here."

The soldiers, Jean, Eren and even Reiner, who had to turn his head in a position that looked slightly uncomfortable to get a peek turned their gazes on Mikasa. She had a split lip and her eye would be black the next day but she still looked victorious. Next to her was Annie Leonhardt. The short blonde looked way worse than Mikasa. It seemed that they had settled their little quarrel about who was a better fighter that had been going on since the short woman had joined the army. Mikasa was yanking the other girl by her collar, and when they were near where Reiner was lying down she dumped the other on the ground to join her team.

"Fall, Leonhardt."

* * *

Before Jean had even mentally or physically recovered from his previous fight a palm slammed against the back of his head.

"I knew there was a reason I always hated you," Eren snarled.

"Right," Jean scoffed. "What a terrible person I am, looking after the Prince, risking my life, carrying him around and shit! Especially since  _you,_  Jaeger," Jean poked Eren's chest so hard he almost had to take a step back, "have been so goddamn helpful over the past days."

Eren just scowledand pinned Jean's back against a tree with his forearm. "Where is he?" he asked with a low voice.

"Relax, stop spitting on my face and I'll take you to him. Deal?"

Eren grunted quietlyand slowly let the taller boy go.

"Well? We don't have all day, horse face."

Mikasa joined them as they left the soldiers to deal with the kidnappers. Jean made his way through the woods, following the path he had been running. It didn't take them long to reach the building where Armin was supposed to be hiding.

As they went in Eren pushed Jean out of his way before running into the room which door was open.

"Armin! You here? Answer me!"

Eren's voice echoed in the small and mostly bare room, scaring couple of rats away.

"Armin?" Jean's concerned voice called out. He made his way to the wooden boxes.

There was no Prince to be seen.

One glance to Eren's face let him know the boy was on the verge to beat him up.

A glimpse to Mikasa told that the girl would help.

"He-he was here!" Jean sputtered.

"What, he left for an evening stroll through the woods?" Eren took some threatening steps towards Jean, who had no idea how to get the situation under control.

"Look I swear I left him right here, and the only way we can find him now is to look for him. Maybe someone came here before us."

"Who, exactly?!" Eren spat out, "the assholes who took him are tied up. The soldiers are there too! So who the fuck was here before us?"

"I don't know!" Jean yelled back, "but you can't be saying that Armin is stupid enough to go wander around by himself."

Eren was about to hit the other boy no matter how true the thing he had just said was when Mikasa's hand gripped his shoulder. "He's right Eren. Armin's not stupid. Someone was here."

Eren lowered his fists with a huff. As satisfactory as punching Kirchstein would be it would do nothing to help the problem at hand.

"Let's go find him," he muttered. The moment he dared to think that it would all be over and Armin would be safe some new problem would raise its ugly head. It was really starting to affect his determination.

The trio headed out. They looked around, at the widespread tree line in front of them and the few alleys leading further into the village behind them.

"He can't have made it far," Mikasa muttered into her scarf.

"Well he didn't go into the forest for sure," Jean exclaimed.

"How come?"

"Trust me," Jean rubbed the back of his neck, "he has no idea how to move in forest terrain."

Eren couldn't disagree. "Into the village it is."

They really didn't know where to start looking, so they went to check the nearby buildings and animal shelters. After finding only two goats, four chickens and one man passed out they decided to start looking closer to the town center, if one could call it that since it only had fewer than dozen buildings.

For some unknown reason (it being Eren and Jean's stupidity) the three of them started by looking at the back alleyssince "the bastard who took him wouldn't be having a dinner in plain sight". Mikasa had disagreed, but decided to follow the two males to make sure they wouldn't do anything stupid.

She stood nearby while the two boys were quarreling about who could find Armin sooner. While Mikasa looked at the fighting idiots and tried to think up a plan, one of the soldiers lingered near her.

"Uh," he said and Mikasa's head turned slightly towards him, "I have seen you and those two running around and searching for something… What's lost? Can I help find it?"

"Not it," Mikasa said, "Him."

"Him? Did you lost a soldier or something?" the man was seriously confused.

"Something like that. We won't need any help."

The soldiers face fell and Mikasa understood that he may have been flirting with her. "Well," he said and took couple of steps back, "If you get hungry or anything come to the tavern. It's not a big place but there's free food since they're celebrating the successful mission."

As the man walked away Mikasa counted to ten, went to separate the two boys who were yelling at each other and hit both of them on the head. They surely were idiots.

Surely enough, the long lost Prince was in the local tavern, huddled on a bar stool. Next to him, sitting on the table with his legs crossed, was ex-Corporal Rivaille himself.

"Took you long enough," he glared.

"Eren!" Armin hastily stood up and faced the direction of his old friend. He had recognized Eren even before hearing his voice, like usual. The brunet boy met his friend half wayand pulled the other boy in a tight hug. He couldn't care less if the soldiers or Rivaille were watching while he squeezed Armin against his chest.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm going to watch after you like a hawk from now on."

"And I'm going to keep him from getting in your way," Mikasa said as she joined the hug.

"I missed you too," Armin laughed.

After a while Eren released Armin and looked for signs of any injuries. He found none, but the Prince did have bags under his eyes and he was shivering slightly. Rivaille must have spotted that too since Armin wore his cloak.

"This is all very touching and all," Jean cut in, "but could someone please explain what the hell happened here?"

Armin smiled timidly. "Well, our plan worked out pretty well."

"Your plan?" Eren questioned.

"My kidnappers were outside the building they had been holding us captive in, so I hid into this storage box while Jean climbed out of the window. They thought that we had both escaped and went after Jean," Armin explained.

"You weren't supposed to get out of there on your own though," Jean said with a scolding voice. "Anyone could have found you."

Armin's cheeks tinted red. "I didn't get out of there on my own."

He gestured towards where he thought Rivaille sat with an unimpressed look on his face.

Armin's heart had almost pounded out of his chest back when he had been huddled uncomfortably in that storage box and heard footsteps approaching. Maybe Jean had been killed and his captors were coming for him, or a bounty hunter of some sort had seen Jean's escape and connected the dots. The element of surprise was (kind of) on his side, so he could try and jump on whoever would open the box, but that wouldn't probably help since he couldn't exactly run away.

Someone entered the room and the unusually light footsteps came to a halt.

"Tsk. It's filthy here," the familiar voice said. Armin's breath hitched. Could it be?

"You here, Your Highness?" Rivaille called out. The Prince had never been so happy to hear his voice.

After getting Armin out of the box and trying to swipe all the dirt off the Prince Rivaille had wrapped him in his cloak and had gone to the tavern to get food for the damsel in distress.

None of them had much energy left after hearing what had happened. They all fell asleep after eating, some of them sleeping on long benches and others snoring while sitting. Armin, being a Prince, got an old, used mattress that the tavern's owners had brought to him. He didn't mind and fell asleep the second he lieddown. Rivaille and few other soldiers sat near the sleeping prince. Nobody wanted to lose the Prince the second time.

After the overnight rest it was time to make the journey back into the royal palace. The mood was sort of awkward. Everyone was relieved that the Prince had been restored in one piece, but at the same time everyone knew that the reckless actions that had been taken wouldn't go without consequences. Jean would most likely get off the hook (Armin would make sure of that with his testimony), but the dungeons were almost certainly awaiting Eren and Mikasa since they had failed to take orders.

While having a break from traveling all day Rivaille decided he would take action. The brats were basically closest thing to his own kids he'd ever have and even though Rivaille knew Erwin was merciful there were things the King wouldn't be able tolook between his fingers. One was acting without the King's permission - even though the cause had been good. He gestured Eren to follow him when he left their temporary camp to wash his hand in a nearby river.

"Uh, you want to talk or something?" Eren asked surprisingly timidly considering his normal attitude.

"You and me both know what's awaiting you when we get back. Or did I overestimate your intelligence?"

Eren frowned and looked at his hands. "I know."

Rivaillekneltdown and started washing his hands. "I'm offering you and Mikasa a deal. No one else will hear about this, am I clear?"

Eren nodded silently.

"I'll tell the King that even though you brats acted irrationallyit was because of you that the Prince was saved. He'll probably forgive you, but still give a punishment of some kind."

Rivaille turned his gaze towards the boy, who had his head turned away.

"I'll take whatever punishment without a complaint. I won't regret going for Armin's aid. Mikasa won't either."

The shorter male hummed and got up. He walked next to Eren and put his hand on top of the other's shoulder and said, "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

The rest of the journey back to the castle went without any setbacks. The rebels most likely hadn't even heard the news about the failure of their plan and wouldn't be causing any troublefor them. Besides, Rivaille had sent a messenger to go before them to deliver information about the situation so that Erwin would know to send soldiers to destroy the rebels' camps.

Before they reached the castle Armin asked for Jean to be the one who lead his horse. Eventually Eren gave in and agreed to allow them some privacy. Once Armin could hear that the other riders were out of earshot he drew in a long breath.

This was not a conversation he was looking forward to have.

"Um, Jean."

The other one grunted to show he was listening.

"I'm sure it goes without saying that I'm very grateful for all you've done for me. I'll see that your efforts won't go unrendered," he said awkwardly. Armin had the bad habit of hiding behind his royal facadé when he was in loss of words.

"I didn't do it for a reward," Jean answered curtly.

"I know that," Armin sighed and decided to cut to the point. "Look, I feel like some things I did or said were a little… unfair. Towards you."

There was no reply.

"It's not that I deliberately wanted to manipulate or mislead you, I just… Either way. It was unfair."

"It's fine. I knew, on some level anyway. That it wouldn't work," Jean cut in.

For a moment they went on without a word.

"It's that Jaeger brat isn't it?"

Armin almost fell off his horse. "Wh-what? No! I mean, I-"

Jean let out a half hearted laugh. "Sorry, it wasn't my place to ask Your Highness. Oh, the castle is on sight now!"

There was nothing left to say, so the two made the rest of the journey in silence.

Armin knew that Jean would be mature about all of this and wouldn't hold a grudge. That knowledge did nothing to lessen the quilt that was twisting his guts, though.

* * *

Being torn out of bed by force sucked, but Armin found that waking up without Eren sucked even more. It had been a few months since he had returned into the castle and it still felt off somehow.

A servant knocked on the door and entered to wake the Prince up. She opened the curtains as Armin sat up and stretched his arms above his head. Since Eren wasn't in the castle anymore Armin prefered to dress by himself. The servants only put the clothes on a neat pile next to his bed and then left the room. At first it had been hard and Armin had put the shirt on backwards more times he could count, but after a while he figured it out. Almost.

He got the clothes on with little difficulty and made his way to the castle's front gate. Mikasa would be waiting for him since he had told her about his plan the day before. While Eren had gotten most of the "blame" for saving him Mikasa had gotten her share too. Her rank had been lowered a little bit, but it was mainly a formality since everyone knew losing Mikasa would have been a great loss. She was one of their most skilled fighters after all.

Eren, on the other hand, had been banned from the castle and was now working as a stable boy. He didn't live far away, but Armin couldn't just walk out to meet him unlike Mikasa, who visited him almost daily.

Armin arrived to the meeting spot, but Mikasa wasn't there yet as he didn't hear anyone approaching him. He listened the wind for a while before his stomach grumbled loudly, reminding him about skipping breakfast. It would have to last until he got to Eren's place.

Armin concentrated to his surrounding again when he heard footsteps.

"Good morning, Prince Armin," the person said. It was Jean. Armin smiled and nodded as an answer. When they had came back Armin had made sure Jean was treated like a victim of the situation. Basically he had been kidnapped alongside the Prince and without him and his notes Armin would have been in the hands of the enemy with no hope for a rescue. Jean hadn't received a punishment for his brave act because he hadn't had any other choice whileMikasa and Eren had acted without the King's permission to do so.

Speaking of the King… Armin recognized the determinant footsteps and decided that trying to dash out of sight would only make him seem more suspicious. He leaned his back to the wall and tried to seem casual.

"Oh my. You're up early," Erwin said and halted in front of his adoptive son.

"Good morning, Erwin," Armin replied and smiled to his general direction.

"Who are you waiting? Or are you, by any chance, just standing here?"

Armin turned his head away from Erwin. Why did he have to arrive just then? There was no way he could hide the truth from this man.

"I'm waiting for Mikasa." Erwin didn't answer and Armin took it as a sign to continue. "I'm going to meet Eren with her."

Erwin hummed. "I'm sorry, but I'm not allowing that. There's no way I'd let you go out of the castle with only one soldier. No matter how great you think you're disguised with that cloak."

Well, plan A had failed. It was time to play dirty.

"You know, I was walking back from the library couple of days ago. As I passed one storage room I heard some strange sounds coming inside," the Prince started and kept a little pause to make sure the other was fully listening. "I could have sworn that I heard Rivaille's voice. And yours. And you certainly weren't talking."

A pressuring silence followed. It was a gamble to say something like that, but Armin really felt like seeing Eren. He winced when a large hand landed on his forehead.

"You will either make a terrible king or a great one," Erwin mused and ruffled Armin's bangs a bit. "See that private Ackerman stays right beside you at all times no matter what you may be doing with that stable boy. That's an order."

With that, Erwin walked away.

"Y-yes!" Armin called after him.

Mikasa arrived soon after and Armin had to cover his smug smile. They left the castle without problems and made their way towards Eren's new home. The boy had taken a day off just to spend his time with the Prince and his adoptive sister.

The first thing Armin noticed about Eren's "home" was the smell of horses and the noises that came with those animals. The second thing was a hard chest in front of him and the feeling of Eren hugging him.

"Good morning to you too," Armin laughed as his friend refused to let go. It was a thing that seemed to happen pretty often lately, like Eren feared that Arming would be snatched away again. Not that Armin minded at all.

They climbed to the upper level of the stall where Eren had his mattress and belongings.

_It's a bit of a downgrade from the palace,_  Eren had said when Armin had visited the stables for the first time,  _but it still beats the dungeon I think._  Armin agreed, this was way better once you got used to the smell.

Besides, if Armin really would end up inheriting the throne Eren would be back in the castle in no time.

Mikasa had brought bread and water from the castle and the three of them ate it for breakfast. For Armin it was quite a bit more modest than what he would have been having in the palace, but he could deal. They talked about this and that while eating and sometimes fell into a comfortable silence. The dynamics of their trio had hardly changed even though their lives had taken quite a turn.

"For a prince you're a pretty messy eater," Eren said and reached to brush bread crumbs off the corner of Armin's mouth. Armin could feel a slight tingle where his friend's thumb had lingered for a moment and his cheeks were heating up. He hoped they couldn't tell.

The dynamics of their trio hadn't changed, but something else surely had.

A nod was exchanged, which Armin was oblivious to. Mikasa stood up.

"I'll go check the surroundings," she said with her usual, flat tone of voice.

"Okay," Armin answered.

"I won't go far so call out if you need anything."

The ladders that lead down from the upper level creaked as she climbed down and then there was silence.

"Uh, Armin," Eren said after a while, "There's something I want to talk about. It's kinda serious and… can you just promise to listen to the whole thing before making judgements?"

"Sure? What is it?"

Armin turned towards his friend, who was sitting next to him on the mattress. He lifted his hand and put it on Eren's leg when he found it. It didn't take long for Eren's hand to cover his.

"I don't know if you have noticed - uh, most likely you haven't since I have mostly been watching you - not in a perverted way!" Eren almost yelled and took couple of calming breaths, "I have considered you as my best friend ever since you taught me how to read and at first I felt like there was something wrong with me when I started to think that  _maybe_ there was something else than just being friends. Of course I thought about all this social class stuff, but after what happened I couldn't deny what I felt for you."

"Eren -"

The brunet quickly silenced the Prince with the palm of his hand.

"I was so scared when you disappeared. It was the best feeling in the world when I got you close to me again and saw that you were safe and uninjured."

Eren's hand moved from Armin's mouth to cup his cheek. The Prince, who was normally quick to analyse and understand things that weresaid to him, sat still with his mouth hanging slightly open.

"If you want to pretend this never happened it's okay, I just needed to get this off my chest."

Eren was too afraid to look at Armin. That's why he was taken completely by surprise when his friend's hands landed on his shoulders. He expected to be pushed away, but instead the delicate hands kept trailing up his neck. Armin's fingers moved in a hesitant but urgent manner as his fingertips grazed over Eren's jawline and cheeks. Eventually they found his mouth and that's when Armin surged forward and reached Eren's lips with his own.

Eren's mind went blank as the smaller boy pressed their lips together more firmly. The kiss itself short and clumsy at first, but it made Eren feel really happy inside.

Neither of them was particularly experienced, so their teeth were clashing together and noses bumping. It was still very enjoyable once they started to find a common rhythm. Eren pulled his fingers gently through Armin's hair and the other one tugged lightly at the collar of his shirt to pull him closer.

"Push your tongue out," Eren breathed out. Armin complied without hesitation and Eren carefully sucked at it. Armin hummed pleasantly and moved forward to sit on Eren's lap.

Armin pressed his hips against Eren's thigh. There was no way to hide the fact that both of them had boners. It was a bit embarrassing, but it reassured both of them they were enjoying the situation equally. Eren's hand that had been caressing Armin's lower back went to lay on top of their boners. The movement made Armin moan out loud and cover his mouth with his hand. It all felt so  _good._  The Prince was no stranger to sexual things, but he had never actually done anything. Prince's don't get to fool around, but that didn't mean he hadn't tried some things by himself. Nothing had felt as good as Eren's hand, which was stroking their erections through their pants. Without his eyesight Armin's other senses were more sensitive than an ordinary person's. It was no wonder why he reacted so easily.

"Don't hold anything in," Eren whispered to him. His breathing was getting heavier.

"Wasn't my intention," the blond joked as Eren's hand first took his own and then Armin's cocks out of their pants and slowly started to stroke them together. Armin buried his face in Eren's neck.

Eren palmed the tips and stroked faster as Armin, who tried to keep his voice down, kissed along the brunet's neck and jawline.

All the stimulation became too much for the Prince sooner than he would've liked to admit and he spilled his loadon Eren's hand. The other boy followed soon after hearing and seeing Armin coming.

"That wasn't completely unpleasant," Armin whispered and lifted his head from Eren's shoulder.

"Um… Yeah." Eren felt a little bit dazzled. He had just wanted to tell his friend he liked him, how did he end up with Armin on his lap and cum stains all over his pants? Not that he was complaining.

Eren reached for a table cloth and used it to wipe both of them clean. He then gently tied the strings of Armin's pants.

"I kinda miss dressing you every morning," he muttered. They both laid down on the straw _s_ and Eren wrapped his arms around Armin's Prince looked absolutely cute, laying next to him with with dirt on his hair and a light blush covering his cheeks.

"You? Being cheesy? I miss the old Eren," Armin laughed and moved his own hand until it rested on the other boy's waist. Eren kissed Armin's forehead before he laid his own head down.

Eren would have been content just cuddling there, but soon he felt Armin's fingers snaking their way up his sides and rubbing at his chest.

"You never took your shirt off," Armin noted.

"Neither did you," Eren noted.

"Prince's orders. Take the shirt off."

"Anything to please my future King," Eren said **.** He was a little confused by Armin's quick mood swings, going from cute to demanding in seconds. He still did as he was told andgot into a sitting position to take the piece of clothing off. Armin too sat up and raised his arms so Eren could pull off his shirt as well.

Armin put his hands shyly on Eren's chest before he started to feel the other up. They had been friends for years, but it was the first time for Armin to be able to touch the other so freely. Eren had good muscles that had developed from years of cleaning under Rivaille's surveillance and the recent hard labour from taking care of the stables. Deep inside Armin felt a bit jealous but hey, the muscles were there for him now so he wouldn't complain. Eren was oddly still, giving Armin time to explore with his hands.

"Is something wrong Eren?" the Prince asked when there were no reactions from the brunet apart his breath hitchingfrom time to time. For Armin the situation was turning into something more heated once again, so  _why_ wasn't Eren responding?

"Okay, that's it," Armin said, " _you_ confessed to me and said  _I_ don't need tohold back so guess what? That's exactly what you're going to get."

Armin gave Eren no time to react before he yanked the other boy on top of him and wrapped his legs around Eren's waist to prevent him from escaping. His hands found their way around the brunet's neck and he pulled the other's mouth against his for a heated kiss. He wouldn't let Eren get second thoughts about all this.

A strong hand pushing his chest made him retreat from the kiss and get the chance to breath.

"Don't you want this as much as I do?" the Prince whispered and stroked the short strands of hair on the base of Eren's neck.

The other boy smiled, kissing Armin's cheek lightly. "Can't you see how much I want you?"

"Haha Eren, that was hilarious," Armin sneered. As a revenge he pulled the other closer with his legs so that their growing erections brushed together. Both of them let out sounds of pleasure.

"Y-you don't happen to have something to use as… you know?" Armin managed to say while Eren moved his hips agonisingly slowly, creating friction between their lower parts.

The brunet's voice hid none of his excitement as he said, "Actually, when I got kicked out I took my cleaning stuff back to the cleaning supply closetand I saw a bottle of something."

"Let me guess, whatever it is it's Rivaille's?"

Eren nodded against his throat. He sucked on a spot that wouldn't show under a shirt and got the Prince out of his pants. Then Eren stood up and walked to the little box that contained all his possessions while Armin listened at the shuffling impatiently. Eren walked back to him and yanked the bottle open. There were wet sounds when Eren spread the oily liquid on his skin.

"Spread your legs, please."

Armin didn't hesitate to do just that. He laid his back against the coarse straws and hooked his hands behind his knees to spread his legs as open as possible. Soon he could feel a slightly cool touch against his entrance.

Armin knew from firsthand experience that Eren's cock wasn't as small as the thing that was currently probing him.

"You're putting in your finger? I'm pretty sure that's not how it works," Armin joked.

"Shut up," Eren murmured. "I'm gonna do this properly. Trust me, it'll feel better this way."

Armin huffed impatiently. Eren was right of course but Armin still would have preferred to have the other boy inside him right away. Eren pressed a kiss on Armin's knee and pushed the first digits of his finger in. It slipped in effortlessly. Rivaille clearly invested in quality.

To make things more comfortable for Armin Eren grabbed his dick and started pumping before reaching deeper with his finger and adding another. The Prince was panting, but he didn't seem to be in pain, so Eren added a third finger. This time Armin looked more uncomfortable and momentarily Eren panicked about hurting him, but the look soon passed away.

Eren decided to play safe so he asked: "Are you okay? I'm not hurting you, right?"

"Ah, no, it just feels strange. The fingers, I mean. I think I'm ready?"

Eren removed his fingers and positioned himself over Armin. It felt overwhelming. The boy he had loved for years felt the same way, not caring about the difference in their social status, and was willing to go this far for him. He pushed the tip in and waited a moment before sliding in agonizingly slowly for Armin's liking. It felt like he was stretched beyond his limits, but the pain wasn't bad - all thanks to Eren's preparations, wherever he had learned to do so - and soon Armin tested moving around a bit. It didn't feel bad, so he moved some more, making it clear for Eren that he could start moving. The taller boy pulled his cock halfway out before going back in and setting up a pace.

It was clumsy and awkward, but Eren's gasps of air told the Prince he was enjoying himself. He himself wasn't getting much pleasure from the act, but Eren's hand on his erection made sure he wasn't going limb. That was until Eren's dick reached a bit deeper than before. At first Eren got startled by Armins sudden gasp and halted, scared that he had thrusted too roughly in his excitement.

"Aw shit, Armin, sorry, i'll go slow-"

Armin gripped the back of Erens neck.

"No, do that again," he moaned.

Eren moved again in a same way and made Armin bite down on his neck. The movement was still awkward though, and Eren didn't reach that sensitive spot as often as the Prince beneath him would have preferred. Since he was the one doing the receiving, he deserved that much, Armin decided.

"Hey Eren, why don't you lie down instead?" Armin suggested coyly. Even moving his hips to meet Eren's was a chore in this position.

"You don't like it this way?" Eren sounded embarrassed even through his arousal.

"Get over yourself," Armin said and gave Eren's nose a playful smooch. He then ever so gently pushed Eren off of him. Eren was feeling a little down, but who wouldn't after your lover saying they haven't enjoyed themselves between the lines? He tried to push those thoughts away as the smaller boy sat up and went to sit on Eren's lap, straddling him, moving his small hips towards his. The blond wrapped his hand around Eren's cock before guiding it back inside of him. The Prince started moving, slowly at first, trying to find the perfect position for them both.

Whatever insecurities had been bothering Eren under a minute ago were long gone now. Now that Armin controlled the pace and angle he could see how much more the blond was enjoying. Armin had finally found a position that worked the best and  _it felt really good_. He quickened the speed and didn't bother to muffle the moans and whimpers when Eren's hand made contact with his now hard erection.

Eren could feel himself being close to coming. The feeling was settling in his lower parts and he knew he wouldn't last long, so he yanked Armin's head down and kissed him, whispering "I'm close" against his lips. In response the Prince started rolling his hips while taking Eren's cock inside, driving the other boy crazy.

Eren's cock was pulsing and pre-cum was dripping out already. Eren was panting frantically and rolling his hips to meet Armin's. Eventually he just had to give in and let the pleasure wash over him. The thought of pulling out occurred to Eren too late and he ended up ejaculating inside the blond, who didn't stop riding him for a moment.

"Ho-ly shit," Eren gasped as Armin kept milking his orgasm. The pressure around his now over-sensitive dick kept still sending shivers up his spine and it was becoming almost too much to bear. Eren had thought to this day that he knew what a proper orgasm felt like, but he had definitely been wrong.

Determined to push his friend over the limit too, Eren kept pumping Armin's erection with newfound determination and smeared the few beads of precum over the tip to slicken the movement. Delicious gasps filled the air as Armin was getting closer too.

Eren had to take a moment to appreciate the sight of the Prince on the verge of climaxing, cheeks flushed pink and a light sheen of sweat covering his naked body, hair tousled and eyes squeezed shut. A moment later he came on Eren's hand, slumping afterwards against the brunet's sweaty chest. They lay down, catching their breaths until Armin murmured: "If this gets better in time I may die some day."

Eren let out a small chuckle as he pulled himself out and flipped Armin on his side.

"Does this mean you want to do it again?"

"Does it look like I wouldn't? This is why I'm the smarter one."

"That you are," Eren said and snuggled closer to Armin's petite body. His own body felt warm and drained, if not a little damp from the sweat and other bodily fluids between them. Eren was aware that they would have to sooner or later tidy up since it would become uncomfortable to just lie there, but he was going to enjoy the moment for what it was worth. Eren closed his eyes and breathed in Armin's familiar scent (soap and dust from the library mostly) along with the reek of the stables. The bustling of the village around them and the screams of the seagulls blended as a background for the steady rhythm of Armin's breathing.

"Sooo when do you get the next chance to sneak away from the castle?"

**Bonus scene:**

Life without Eren as Rivaille's little helper was a curse and a blessing. There were no more dirt hidden under rugs or Eren's constant complaining about doing dirty jobs, but then again Rivaille was now on charge of the whole castle. While he enjoyed cleaning, taking care of a huge building wasn't exactly easy.

Well, at least he had a great way of relieving stress. It usually involved a cleaning supply closet and a very hot man who just happened to be the King. No big deal. This time wasn't an exception. Both of their shirts were long gone and they were just about to do some stress relieving when Rivaille searched around the shelf where the lube usually was…

…and found plus two quickly matched in Rivaille's head as he remembered Eren being the last person to use that particular closet.

"Fucking brat."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it was. We thank anyone who made it this far and people who sent us feedback and comments about how they actually wanted to read this till the end.
> 
> As usual grammar mistakes and such can't be avoided with us, so if you happen to notice something big (like a sentence not making sense, wrong words etc) please tell us. Reviews and constructive criticism are something we always look forward to.
> 
> We're also looking for a beta, so if you want to read shitty fanfiction send us a message! Only requirements are a) you're a human and b) you have some sense of grammar.
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> ~Jazzy & Janice


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